Eve had only time to cast a look of affectionate gratitude towards him,--for whilst he spoke tauntingly, he spoke with a feeling that her experience from childhood had taught her to appreciate,--ere the arrival of another boat drew the common attention to the gangway. A call from the officer in attendance had brought the captain to the rail; and his order "to pass in the luggage of Mr. Sharp and Mr. Blunt," was heard by all near.
"Now for _les indigènes_," whispered Mademoiselle Viefville, with the nervous excitement that is a little apt to betray a lively expectation in the gentler sex.
Eve smiled, for there are situations in which trifles help to awaken interest, and the little that had just passed served to excite curiosity in the whole party. Mr. Effingham thought it a favourable symptom that the master, who had had interviews with all his passengers in London, walked to the gangway to receive the new-comers; for a boat-load of the quarter-deck _oi polloi_ had come on board a moment before without any other notice on his part than a general bow, with the usual order to receive their effects.
"The delay denotes Englishmen," the caustic John had time to throw in, before the silent arrangement at the gangway was interrupted by the appearance of the passengers.
The quiet smile of Mademoiselle Viefville, as the two travellers appeared on deck, denoted approbation, for her practised eye detected at a glance, that both were certainly gentlemen. Women are more purely creatures of convention in their way than men, their education inculcating nicer distinctions and discriminations than that of the other sex; and Eve, who would have studied Sir George Templemore and Mr. Dodge as she would have studied the animals of a caravan, or as creatures with whom she had no affinities, after casting a sly look of curiosity at the two who now appeared on deck, unconsciously averted her eyes like a well-bred young person in a drawing-room.
"They are indeed English," quietly remarked Mr. Effingham; "but, out of question English gentlemen."
"The one nearest appears to me to be Continental," answered Mademoiselle Viefville who had not felt the same impulse to avert her look as Eve; "he is _jamais Anglais_!"